


love like you

by ibuiltthesunforyou



Category: Charlie's Angels (2019), Charlie's Angels (Movies)
Genre: hint of top!jane, its mostly really aggressive jane and elena fluff, sabinas only in it for a sec, there is also a heavy carmilla (the web series) reference in here if you catch it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-03
Updated: 2019-12-03
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:21:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21658963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ibuiltthesunforyou/pseuds/ibuiltthesunforyou
Summary: elena had taught jane a lot. from coding, to cooking, to little things that made her life easier. but she’d also taught jane that words could be something other than empty.
Relationships: Elena Houghlin/Jane Kano
Comments: 6
Kudos: 102





	love like you

_ “Are scientists really supposed to guess?” _

_ “Of course. It’s part of the scientific method.” _

That’s how her love affair with one Elena Houglin began. Unofficially of course. 

What starts with what’s meant to be a quip, ends with Jane feeling obligated to get Elena to talk. About what specifically, she didn’t know. She just wanted to know everything Elena had to say. It was just the way knowledge rolled off her tongue like a breeze. They both were in love with learning, she found that early on, in the way Elena studied their missions. Her questions were poignant, important, and clear. When she wasn’t trying to convince them to let her in on a mission that she was already assigned on. Jane was surrounded by wise, willful women in the Angels, but the softness that seemed to surround Elena like an aura was different. She could be smashing a criminal into a printer, or tranqing herself. Really, no in between. 

Jane was vaguely aware of coding, it was something she could figure out pretty easily just based on her MI6 training. But whenever Elena was working on something, and Jane didn’t know, she asked. The first time, Elena was confused, asking if she’d messed something up. And when Jane laughed and said she wouldn’t know if she had, Elena smiled. 

Every time since then, she’d pulled Jane closer to the computer, making the words on the screen seem like living and breathing elements, pulling together for an output. Her head would fall on Jane’s shoulder, her fingers brushing her bicep. It was a habit, a moment of their time together that was as reliable as the tides. 

One day, Elena pulled her closer without her asking a question, her hand resting back on Jane’s bicep like it’d never left. Jane didn’t think much of it, her eyes finding something to ask about after a few quiet moments. But when she turned to ask, she found Elena asleep. 

Her arms carefully pressed around the girl, checking if the document was saved before she set Elena’s computer on the coffee table and brought the girl to her room. They were partners. They all were. It didn’t seem strange to Jane to make sure Elena wasn’t sleeping on the couch. And when Elena’s head turned against her skin and nuzzled into her neck, she didn’t think anything of it. Except that maybe, it was a little cute. 

The next time she was reading, she felt, rather than saw Elena push under her arm, and Jane, being surrounded by very cuddly women, let her arm raise enough for Elena to snuggle into her side. They were quiet for a few moments, Elena looking over her book. 

_ “Those who prefer their principles over their happiness, they refuse to be happy outside the conditions they seem to have attached to their happiness _ .” Elena says slowly, reading from the page. 

“It’s comforting. He understands that love doesn’t mean the same thing to everyone.” She doesn’t look up until the silence starts to feel unnatural, and finds big brown eyes flicking over her face. “What?” 

“I think that’s the saddest thing I’ve ever heard.”

Jane’s eyebrows furrow, her fingertips brushing Elena’s hair from her eyes. Only because they looked ticklish. And because Elena’s hair was soft. 

“What’s the use of it meaning the same thing?”

“So you know the person you love feels the same about you.” 

There’s a weight in the moment that’s lost on Jane, her eyes going back to her book. “Seems easier to ask.” 

“Love isn’t about asking. It’s about knowing somewhere deep inside that you don’t have to be scared. Haven’t you ever been scared?”

Jane thinks for a moment, looking past the book. Her eyes return to honey colored ones. “The only people I really care for, are you and Sabina. Not that I’d ever admit that.” A hint of a smile. “And I’m never scared when it comes to either of you.” 

There was a deflated look in Elena’s eyes, one that didn’t match with Jane’s words, and for a moment the taller girl wondered if she was missing something. When Elena got up, Jane watched her for a moment before returning to the page. And she couldn’t focus on a single word. 

She thought she’d said something nice. Really, truly had. She never seemed to have a problem with getting her points across before Elena and Sabina. Maybe it was just because they were American. 

As it got closer to Christmas, she found Elena using the actual cable more than usual. Rather than Netflix, their joint apartment seemed to be filled with Hallmark and cookies the majority of the day. Most of them, Jane just ignored, reading a book or reading case files on her phone while Elena pressed into her side. But after a few days of an empty home, she felt something akin to loneliness. Both of her friends were at least halfway across the world. 

So sat down on the couch and used Elena’s blanket, nibbling on the cookies that'd been left in a bag for her in the kitchen.

“  ♥ this is what love means to me - e ♥  ”

The note on the cookies made her think. Even as she actually found the plot of the movie bearable, it made her think. 

That night, after the movie had ended, she moved around the living room so Elena could do yoga by the window, like she’d been wanting too. She also sewed up Sabina’s jacket that she’d proclaimed was “ruined!” before she’d left. She cleaned the kitchen and threw together a dish of her mac and cheese, the only thing that she really cared to cook, and the only thing that would draw Elena away from her computer when she was working on a project. 

And she sent a text to their group chat after she turned the oven off.  _ “Goodnight angels. I hope you’re safe.”  _

The responses were almost immediate. Both Elena and Sabina always asked her to check in, she had a bad habit of forgetting her phone for days on end, especially when she didn’t have any assignment to do. 

Sabina’s response made her laugh, proclaiming that Jane was, in fact, alive! Elena sent a picture of her curled up in a bed, covers pulled up to her neck. Her face was scrunched up in what Jane hoped was joy. A picture, and a little heart, just like her note. 

She wasn’t home when the girls got home, but had left a small scribbled note on top of the mac and cheese for Elena. 

“ & this is what love means to me- j  ”

  
  


It was a day mission, only gaining insight for another agent. Jane walked through the door late, but not late enough for the house to be quiet. It was filled with the sound of a Christmas movie and the smell of cinnamon. It felt like home. 

“Hey there stranger!” Sabina exclaimed, grinning up at her from the couch. Elena’s greeting wasn’t audible, just a smile that made it hard for Jane not to smile herself. After she’d gotten cleaned up, she sat between them, feeling their heads rest on her shoulders. Elena’s hand went not for her bicep, but for her hand, twining their fingers. 

“Thank you.” She said quietly, not speaking loud enough to interrupt the movie. Jane’s response was only to lean and press a kiss to Elena’s forehead. It felt like Elena was teaching her even when she wasn’t trying too. 

Loving Jane was a wordless journey. She didn’t say that she wanted Elena to be happy. She just spent 2 days putting up the Christmas tree so Elena wasn’t homesick. She didn’t say, I want to learn with you. She took them to every museum she could find and made sure they didn’t miss a single thing. She didn’t say, I want to be with you. She just kissed Elena on the top of the Eiffel Tower, and waited a whole 18 seconds before using her hook to zipline down the building. 

It wasn’t that she didn’t feel it. It was just that love meant different things to them. Words could be fake, or empty. Jane’s love for Elena was neither. And Elena came to understand that. 

She was happy to watch Jane, to observe and read between the metaphorical lines. There was something beautiful in the way Jane could give away so much without a word, only when she had the intention. 

Like many times before, Elena is content wrapped up under Jane, extremely aware of the fact that the girl’s feet were hanging off the edge of the bed. But her knees felt too much like Jello to suggest a move. The silence is peaceful, the soft sound of their intertwined breaths filling the room. And Elena feels herself start to give into sleep until she hears Jane start talking. “You’re so beautiful.” The words are spoken directly in her ear, in the softest tone she’d ever heard Jane use. 

“Thank you baby.” She replies, her teeth tying her lower lip into her mouth after she can’t keep the surprise out of her voice. 

“You have the softest skin I’ve ever felt. The most beautiful body. When I touch you I can almost believe in divine intervention.” Jane’s lips nuzzle against Elena’s cheek, and if she was looking at her, she could’ve seen the tears prickling at Elena’s eyes. “And you’re brilliant. Everytime you open your mouth I wonder what I’m going to learn next. I wish I could do nothing but sit and pick your mind. I wish I could know how you felt about everything.” Her hands wrap around Elena’s hips, pressing into the soft skin in a delicious way that makes Elena wonder if this was just a really, really great dream. It reminded her of the times she’d held Jane close at night, telling her all the things she couldn’t in the business of the day. The times where Jane would just smile, and kiss her like she was the only thing left on Earth. But this was different. Mainly because it’d never happened, and Elena felt a mix of pure adoration, and warmth blooming in her stomach. 

“You’re always so _good_. For everyone — and especially for me. Whether it’s taking care of me after a mission...or listening when I tell you to get on your knees for me.” That draws a whimper from Elena, and it only seems to spur Jane’s words on as her lips get closer to the edge of Elena’s jaw, nipping at the skin she found there. Elena didn’t know how her words could simultaneously make her cry and make her feel like her body was on fire. ”I wonder if you even know how amazing you are. Wonder if you know how I watch you. How most people do. Waiting for wings to appear, or for you to disappear. Do you know how often I wonder if I’m dreaming when I’m holding you?” 

And that’s when a sob left Elena’s lips, her entire being overflowing with all of what Jane was giving her.

Jane pushed up on her hands, looking down at her lover and seeing tear tracks leading from her eyes to her hair. “I love you so much.” Elena whispers. She looks so beautiful this way, staring up with starry eyes. 

Elena had taught Jane a lot. From coding, to cooking, to little things that made her life easier. But she’d also taught Jane that words could be something other than empty. 

“I don’t ever want you to have to look for the fact that I think you’re beautiful. I want you to know. I want you to be wholly sure that I am in love with you.” 

She was still hovering over Elena, watching the girl try and control her tears, feeling her hands work their way up to Jane’s shoulders. And instead of responding, Elena pulled her down into a kiss that was full of promises. And without a word, they understood each other. 


End file.
